Hull's George Boyd will serve a three-match suspension with immediate effect
after being found guilty of spitting at Manchester City's Joe Hart

George Boyd has had his appeal rejected by the Football Association and will serve a three-game ban for spitting at Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Although television replays showed spit flying from the Hull City player's mouth during an argument with Hart in the second half of Manuel Pellegrini's team's 2-0 win at the KC Stadium, Boyd denied he had spat at the England international and claimed he was merely shouting back at him after he had been accused of diving.

That excuse was rejected by an independent regulatory commission, set up by the FA to hear the misconduct charge, and Boyd will miss three crucial Premier League games for Hull against West Brom this weekend, followed by West Ham and Stoke.

Hart was furious with the forward for flinging himself to the ground without any contact inside the area and made his feelings clear as they went head-to-head.

The goalkeeper was booked for his part in the row, but the spitting incident had not been seen by the referee, Lee Mason, and so the FA took retrospective action against Boyd even though Hart said he did not believe he had been spat at in his post-match interviews.

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An FA statement said: “Hull City’s George Boyd will serve a three-match suspension with immediate effect after an FA charge for spitting was found proven.”

In an earlier statement the FA revealed Boyd was being charged under a new scheme that gave the FA more power to punish players for offences that had been missed by the match officials.

“The charge is in relation to an alleged breach of FA Rule E1 [a] in that in or around the 68th minute of the game, Boyd spat at Manchester City’s Joe Hart. The incident was not seen by the match officials but caught on video.

“Under a new pilot project in Premier League matches this season, if an incident has not been seen by the match officials, a three-man panel of former elite referees will be asked by the FA to review it and advise what, if any action, they believe the match referee should have taken had it been witnessed at the time.”